FilmyByte

Bollywood refers to the Hindi movie industry and Tollywood here refers to the Bengali and Telugu movie industries. We all know that the Hindi speaking population in India is way more than the regional language speakers and hence the viewership of the Tollywood movie is very limited compared to the all India acceptance of Bollywood movies. Here are 10 Reasons Why Average Tollywood Box Office Collections Are Higher Than Bollywood.

1) Population reach

Tollywood Box Office

In India, with more than a billion populations, only a fraction of that population watches regional movies like Telugu and Bengali. Hindi movies i.e. Bollywood does not, have that problem of lack of population reach. More than 18 states in India have Hindi as one of their official languages and south Indians are also becoming more aware of the language hence Bollywood movies have more reach hence them making more money is not surprising. But if you take into account the average collection, fan strength is more in these small industries.

2) Highly paid actors

Relatively lower budget in these industries while the Bollywood stars get paid much more than their other industry counterparts and this takes the budget higher.

3) Star Power in regional movies

Not all stars from the Bollywood command star power, only the Khans (Salman, Shahrukh, and Aamir) can rule the box office with a movie which may or may not have a good story, script, and plot. Others have to bank upon their performances, story and the marketing of their movie through the right channels. But the regional movie promotes fandom in many ways and there is an assured turn out of fans, most of the Telugu movies retrieve the budget mainly on the first week through sheer fan power.

4) More theatres, multiplexes

Hindi movies get a wider distribution and most of their market share comes from the multiplexes where the ticket rates are higher and on weekends higher than usual. Tollywood movies have to rely on normal theatres for more than 50% of their gross margins.

5) Budget and production cost

Just like the cast’s pay, the total budget of Tollywood films in comparison to the Bollywood films is smaller. Production cost is also relatively lesser than that of Bollywood, sometimes the budget can go bigger but such films get their money back by selling satellite rights to channels and internet media.

6) Numbers tell a different story

India produces an astonishing mind-boggling 1,900 films a year on average, of which Hind/ Bollywood accounts for about 340 movies. The bulk of the rest comes from the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi and Gujarati languages. The domestic box office has remained stagnant at about 1.5 billion USD and, while Bollywood might produce more films it contributes just a third of the box office gross from the total.

7) Promotions and Marketing

Tollywood Box Office

For any Bollywood movie the promotions and marketing activities done are on a much larger scale than that of the Tollywood industries. Stars go to various shows, programmes and even do events to promote the movies. In Tollywood, although the actors do the same, it is on a totally smaller scale and does not a factor as much to the movie’s box office collection.

8) The 100 crore bragging rights

Movies can only brag about their collections only if they cross the 100 crores gross margin at the box office. One should consider the net profits, but that usually does not happen and box office is dealt with gross margins. A movie in the 80’s and 90’s was termed successful only if they ran for 25, 50, 75 days. Jubilees were the benchmark of success. But with the advent of the satellite technology, it is the 100 crore benchmark that judges the power of the reach of a particular movie be that Hollywood, Bollywood or Tollywood.

9) Domestic and International openings

Most of the Bollywood films get an international opening in multiple foreign countries whereas the Tollywood movies, a limited number of movies get to be in the international market, some get to all India market. For e.g.bahubali part 1 and 2 was a huge success in regional language and when dubbed into Hindi minted more than 20 million USD and was average in the international box office but a movie like a Secret superstar who was made on a lower budget got a greater international exposure especially in China.

10) TV and media rights

Tollywood Box Office

These have been the cash cows for the producers and has offered some solace for the investors in the recent times. Even some local movies are going for crores in TV and satellite rights.